Bacon, Chilli and Butternut Squash Risotto

Put your butternut squash on a baking tray and drizzle over some oil, a sprinkling of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Pop in your oven on the top shelf for 25-30 mins. Then remove from your oven and keep to the side.

Meanwhile, cut the onion in half through the root, peel and chop into ½cm pieces. Roughly chop the parsley. Cut the red chilli in half lengthways, remove the seeds and finely chop. Peel and grate the garlic (or use a garlic press if you have one). Cut the bacon into 1cm wide strips (use scissors for this if you want, it’s much easier!). Grate the parmesan.

Put a saucepan of water (amount specified in the ingredient list) on to boil with the vegetable stock pot and stir to dissolve.

Put half the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat along with a drizzle of oil. Add your onion and bacon and cook for 5 mins until your onion is soft and your bacon browned. Add your chilli (add less if you don’t like spice) and garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Once the pan is smelling fragrant and garlicky, add the rice along with a good pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper, stir and cook for 1-2 mins until your rice looks slightly translucent around the edges.

After a minute or two, add in a ladle of your stock, stir, and once absorbed, add another ladle of stock. Keep the pan on medium heat and continue adding stock (stirring now and again while it cooks), letting it absorb before adding another ladle. This should take 17-20 mins. Your risotto is ready when your rice is ‘al dente’. Tip: ‘Al dente’ simply means the rice is cooked through but has a tiny bit of firmness left in the middle.

Once cooked, remove from the heat and add your butternut squash along with three-quarters of your parmesan, your remaining butter and three-quarters of your parsley. Squeeze in half the lemon juice, taste and add more lemon juice, salt and black pepper if necessary.